This invention relates to article display and storage devices, and more particularly to a two-piece storage device adapted to receive a small article, such as a coin, a medal, a token or the like, and provide a substantially airtight enclosure for enclosing the article.
Various display devices have been proposed for storing articles, such as coins, tokens, medals, stamps, and the like which comprise a collection of such articles. For example, in coin collecting, one of the most widely used coin holders is the Whitman holder which comprises a heavy paper or cardboard booklet having a plurality of leaves each of which comprises a heavy pressed paper page, which is apertured to permit display of both sides of the coins. The coins are held in place by plastic sleeves which are inserted between the board and an attached paper lamination. It is known that coins stored in such storage devices are subject to tarnish from prolonged contact with the paper which comprises the leaves of the album. In addition, the plastic sleeve does not provide an airtight seal for the coins, and accordingly, the coins are subject to tarnish from contaminents in the air.
Other coin holders have been developed to protect coins from adverse affects from the atmosphere so as to prevent tarnishing and other damaging affects on the coin. These holders are generally in the form of two complimentary mating plates adapted to be interlocked with one another defining an airtight compartment for a coin. One such holder, disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,229,809 to G. I. Spadaro, includes a pair of mating parts which together form a display chamber for a coin. Each plate has an inwardly projecting ridge, the ridges being received in telescopic engagement when the parts are assembled together to define the display chamber. Recessed window portions are centrally located on the outer surfaces of the parts to enhance viewability of the article contained within the holder when it is assembled.
Another coin holder shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,100,567 to M. Levy comprises two hinged plates adapted to enclose an envelope of flexible plastic film material sealed along three sides leaving one side unfastened to permit insertion of a coin. The edges of the envelope which contains the coin are clamped between the complimentary plates providing a substantially airtight seal when the coin holder is assembled.
The coin holder shown in the 3,229,809 Patent provides the airtight chamber for the coin by virtue of the telescoping ridges. Thus, a high degree of accuracy in the molding of the front and rear parts of the container would be necessary to ensure that the internal projecting ridges are in engagement substantially along their entire extent when the two parts are assembled together to provide a frictionally formed seal for the chamber and which prevents the passage of air into the chamber. The coin holders shown in the 3,100,567 Patent include a plastic envelope for containing a coin, the edges of the envelope being clamped between the complimentary plates when they are assembled together. Although this arrangement relaxes the tolerances required to ensure an airtight seal for the envelope containing the coin, the coin holder itself, by virtue of its hinged construction and its coacting ridges and notches formed along the edges of the two plates, represents a fairly complicated article from a manufacturing standpoint and one which is susceptible to damage.